Monday, June 10, 2013

Are we developing our older Juniors? If not, what is happening?

I have asked these questions before but not many people could see my arguments then. So lets look at this again. There is consensus that we have very talented younger Juniors. But somehow after they turn 16 or so, we are suddenly told that they are not talented anymore and support is then withdrawn and a new wonder boy is found.

I have always found it very short sighted even if that was true. Why? Because it takes a lot of effort to develop Juniors to reach the next level. And that level is to take their place in the senior squad so that we are able to mount challenges overseas. But we don't do that do we? We pull the rug from under their feet just when they are reaching a level of expertise to mount a challenge for the senior squad.

Who was given the place to play at the Olympiad and the Zonals? On what basis? It is so so clear now after National Close. The Juniors that can beat Li Tian are Roshan, Eng Chiam, Yit San and Aron Teh. And they are not as high rated as Li Tian. And they do not take down and swot Super GM's and GM's like they were flies.

So what is happening? Why must our older Juniors be actively put down in order to promote Li Tian?

I can think of 2 possible reasons.

One would be to preserve the current senior squad by removing possible contenders. To continue to send players like Jimmy out to get results like this. Ref: Here. I have already mentioned that our training partner is Bersamina Paulo. He was there too. Check out his results compared to Jimmy's. So we have a gauge of Jimmy's true chess ability today. And Jimmy is now given a "protected" position to continue in the senior squad at the "Masters" playoff.

The second reason I can think of is to get sponsorship under false pretenses. And to do that they have to put all the other Juniors down. What do you call conscious efforts like that? What do you call people like that?

Are these issues not the most pressing to tackle if we really want Malaysia to progress? So can we stop all the side shows that will only distract us from developing Malaysian chess? Come on MCF, get your act together. Our neighbours are busy developing their players. Why are you allowing us to go further backwards?